The present invention relates to compounding data representing a same spatial location. In particular, the level of compounding is tuned or selected.
For ultrasound imaging, frames of data representing overlapping or a same field of view are compounded. For example, frames of data associated with different steering angles from a same transducer are compounded together. Some parts of two or more frames of data represent same spatial locations. As another example, images are acquired as a transducer is translated. The images are compounded together to represent an extended field of view. As yet another example, frames of data representing a same field of view at different frequencies or in response to other differences in imaging parameters are combined. Due to spatial or frequency differences, the compounding may provide speckle variance reduction.
The ultrasound data is compounded in one of various ways. For example, data representing a same spatial location is averaged. As another example, the maximum or minimum value of a plurality of values representing the same spatial location is selected. The results of the selection or averaging are used for further processing, such as generating an image of the compounded data. Where bright structures are visible only in some of the component images, the structures may be smeared or missing due to averaging. Speckle variance based on averaging is low. Where a maximum value is selected, bright structures remain visible but speckle texture is maintained, leading to a twinkling effect, an effect that is aesthetically discomforting, when multiple images are displayed sequentially.